Nicrosaurus
is another one of the phytosaurs,‭ ‬reptiles that have a striking
similarity to modern crocodiles,‭ ‬although the position of the
nostrils higher up the snout and in front of the eyes is a dead
giveaway that Nicrosaurus is a phytosaur‭
(‬crocodiles have their
nostrils on the tips of their snouts‭)‬.‭ ‬Nicrosaurus
is today
considered to be closely related to the phytosaur Mystriosuchus,‭
‬and
at one time these two phytosaurs were once thought to represent male
and female versions of phytosaurs in general.‭ ‬This‭ ‬idea came about
upon the basis that the larger snouts of phytosaurs like Nicrosaurus
were display devices only upon‭ '‬males‭’ ‬and were for‭ ‘‬females‭’
‬that had slender gracile snouts like those seen in Mystriosuchus.‭
‬A
little bit of detective work by palaeontologists has since completely
discredited this theory however as the‭ ‘‬female‭’ ‬and‭ ‘‬male‭’
‬forms are not only found separate,‭ ‬but are each found in strata that
are from different geological periods.‭ ‬These are the hallmarks of
different genera and species,‭ ‬not sexes.
An
interesting discovery
regarding a collection‭ ‬of Plateosaurus has found
that some of these
dinosaurs were possibly trapped in quicksand and then scavenged by
wandering predators.‭ ‬Some of the teeth associated with this discovery
were found to be those of Nicrosaurus which shows
that scavenging was a
part of this phytosaurs behaviour.‭ ‬It also brings into light the
possibility of Nicrosaurus hunting and killing
smaller dinosaurs that
would have steadily been becoming much more common towards the end of
the Triassic.

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